W Hotel Minneapolis-The Foshay

M and I went to stay at the W Hotel in the Foshay Tower on Saturday, August 29th. We celebrated our 5th anniversary a little early since we are busy every weekend until our actual anniversary, November 1st. We checked in around 4:30 pm, with a reservation at Manny's, which is also in the Foshay, at 4:45 pm. We checked into our room on the 18th floor, only to find that the bed was completely unmade and a complete disaster as the mattress was exposed and hanging off the box spring and a huge pile of piles, sheets and blankets on top. I called down to the front desk and they said someone would be up right away to give us keys to a new room. About 5 minutes later and a sincere apology, we were given keys to a room on the 20th floor and 2 complimentary drink cards with a value of $30 to be used at either bar in the Foshay, The Living Room or Prohibition Sky Bar. Because we were due to be in Manny's for our reservation, the guy who brought us up our keys took and delivered all of our stuff into our new room for us.

I had been to Manny's one other time about 6 years ago while it had been in its other location before becoming a part of the Foshay but it was a first time for M. I had the same feelings about Manny's as I did the first time...overpriced and not worth it. The food was just ok for me. M really enjoyed it though. The service was very good though.

After our dinner, we headed up to the room to explore. We had a room called the Fabulous Room.

Our room on the 20th floor

The shower was huge

A great skyline view from all the windows

The stocked bar with food and cold drinks inside

Check out the prices!

After checking out our room, we went up to the 30th floor, which is the observation deck and museum. It was so windy and chilly up on the observation deck but we went up three separate times to check out the scenery during different times of the day.

Looking eastward towards St. Paul

Click the picture below to enlarge. Look above the "A" in Foshay and you will see M and I in the reflection of the building.

The new Twins Stadium, Target Field (The Target Center is in the foreground)

At Sunset

Our hair blowing all over the place

After the observation deck, we went to down the lobby area of Manny's and sat in a bar called Living Room to use our complimentary drink coupons. The allotted $30 for drinks got us each 1 drink, which totalled exactly $30. I drank two martini's, one that was called the Epiphany and then Bluephoria. Both were very good. M had a Rich Cuban and a Behind the Green Door. The atmosphere itself looks like a trendy, you guessed it, living room, with swanky couches, chairs, lamps and a freestyle fireplace. We sat in an over sized leather chair for 2.

The hotel lobby

Our first set of drinks sitting at the fireplace

The door to Manny's through Living Room

My favorite drink of the night...Very Berry Mojito

After two drinks in Living Room, we decided to leave and go up to the 27th floor to Prohibition Sky Bar. The space used to be Foshay's private quarters/office. After getting off the elevator, we realized it was quite a small bar and it was packed with no place to sit. After hanging around for a couple of minutes, we decided to head back downstairs to Living Room and continue our night down there. We soon learned that our awesome chair had been taken and there was no where else to sit. We snatched up an oversized chair about 10 minutes after getting back there and we were there for the rest of the evening. The DJ was starting to play and people were starting to dance and the place was getting pretty busy. Then the green Manny's door opened and out came a line of 8 or so guys, who just looked like they were somebody. We just watched them walk through the crowd from afar when I said to M that I think that I recognize the last guy in the group. He said that it looked like him so he went off to see if it was. M was walking just behind the guy when he yelled, "Colt." Colt turned around and extended his hand and said hi. We were right. It was Colt Anderson from the Minnesota Vikings. M talked to him for a couple of minutes and then came back and told me that I was right and it was him. He also said that the rest of the guys he was with were also Vikings. He said it was pretty packed over there but the only person he would see and recognize was Antoine Winfield. M said I should go over there and see them. So I did. I walked over and recognized a couple of faces including Winfield and then came back to our chair. After a few minutes, I wasn't satisfied and decided to go back over there for a better look. This time the Vikings were all in plain view and it was easy to get over to them. So me having a little bit of liquid courage approached Antoine Winfield and the conversation went something like this:

Dana (D): Shouldn't you be on a plane to Houston right now?

Antoine (A): (laughs) No, not until tomorrow afternoon. (Extending his hand) Hi, I'm Antoine.

D: I know who you are Number 26. I'm Dana.

D: (To Marcus McCauley-another Viking) Hi Number 21.

A: Oh, you really are a fan! (Laughs) Who are you here with?

D: (After thinking whether or not I should tell him I am with M- Ha ha) My boyfriend.

A: Where is he?

D: (Pointing) Over there.

A: Why is he over there?

D: Because we have a good seat over there and we didn't want to lose it. You should come over with me and say hi to him.

A: (slightly hesitant) (laughs) Ok.

D: But you have to hold my hand while we approach him.

A: (laughs) Ok.

We walk over to M, walking hand in hand and M sees just my bottom half coming as the fireplace hood is covering the rest of my body but he can see that I am holding hands with someone and he is confused. I come around the corner with a smile on my face and according to M, Antoine is smiling even bigger. He shakes M's hand and introduces himself. We spend some time talking to him and he is not in the slightest inconvenienced by us and truly is having a good time talking to us. We talked for a few minutes, shook hands with M, gave me a hug and was on his way. It was definitely a highlight of our night and we just kept talking about it all night.

Dinner at Manny's: $141

2 drinks at Living Room: $30

Seeing M's face while walking up to him holding hands with Antoine Winfield: Priceless

Here are a couple of pics of what Living Room looks like in the daytime

We were allowed for a late check out on Sunday morning so we took our time getting ready and getting out of there. We couldn't stay as long as we wanted to though because the Chicago White Sox were checking in later in the day. We took showers, hung out in our white robes provided to us (soooo comfortable) and headed home!

The whole experience was very fun and normally M and I would not get a hotel room locally and do this sort of thing. We spent a lot of money but it was for an occasion and it was all worth it. After talking to our server during Saturday night, we soon found out that the many of the Vikings frequent there and after seeing all the celebrities on the wall at Manny's, you are bound to see someone famous at some point. Our server said that Magic Johnson was there just days before and some of the celebrities that had been there recently were the Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce.